It's hard to be zen...

So this Zen deal is much harder than I thought it was going to be, especially considering that it's October, my favorite month of the year and I'm planning a party for the kids. Work has been crazy busy and it will proceed to be busy until the months end. Things are beginning to pile up and I'm feeling smothered by my to do list. To add to my agony, my Aunt is moving from California to Minnesota in the spring and her drop off is in 2 days. I have to be there while the truck is unloaded to sign for her stuff and I don't have 4 hours to spare. Plus there are parent/teacher conferences, violin lessons and cub/girl scouts to deal with as well. I totally spaced out and forgot about the girl scouts meeting tonight. UGH! That's what I get when I don't look at my planner for the day. I'm lucky I remembered to take my youngest son to get his flu shot today. I couldn't sleep last night, I was tired but my brain just wouldn't shut off. I guess my brain was stuck on ballroom hours. Since we've owned the ballroom my sleep has suffered tremendously. Staying up past midnight for work 3 days a week and then still needing to get up at 7am for the kids has been rough. I'm taking cues from my body so that I don't get sick. I rest when I can, try to eat healthy and drink lots of water. I just keep saying to myself "if I can just make it through October, I'll be OK!" I have managed to have a little fun with the kids, enjoying the beautiful fall weather when I can. We went to a corn maze on what seemed to be the hottest day for about a month. 80 degrees in October just doesn't seem natural here in MN. Last year we were all in hats and sweaters, this year some of us have shorts on! As Halloween approaches I'm sad that I don't get to do more with the kids, after all it is my favorite. I just do what I can and try to enjoy myself with what little free time I have.

Becoming Zen

Since June life has dramatically changed for my family. I went from working 40 hours a week as a secretary to being self employed. I'm finding that while I love working at home and being my own boss, it does hold certain challenges. A quick example of this would be sleep, now I can sleep whenever I want and it has made me slightly lazy. This "I can do it later" mentality is slowly making my anxiety levels soar because now I have an incredible amount to do. Before when I went away to work I had the opportunity to step away and write down all of the things I wanted to get done, there was a sense of order to everything. Now that I stay at home everyday it all just stares me in the face and most days I don't know where to begin. So, in an effort to bring some type of order back to my life I'm trying to be more zen. Strangely enough Benjamin Franklin's 13 Virtues is pretty zen, so I'm going to attempt to live the next year based on living simply, not spending unnecessarily and striving to be more zen. Referring back to my readings from Not Buying It, I'm going to spend less, buy used and really ask myself if I Need or Want something. Wish me luck!